Premiere Pro CC to Resolve 14 roundtripping workflow query

[BjornT]

Hi everyone,

Long time reader, first time poster and wanted to see what peoples workflows are when roundtripping from premiere pro CC to Resolve 14 with 4K footage for 1080 delivery and mixed framerates and if I could be doing it in a better way.

Recently got a GH5 (Loving it). I transcode everything to 4K Prores LT and 1080P Prores HQ using editready and never use the original H264 files again (I am on resolve lite).  I shoot mainly 4K 25fps, 4K 50 fps, and 1080p 25fps (VFR) and edit in premiere pro on a 1080P timeline in 25fps (final delivery is always 1080p). I stabilize, crop, zoom etc on the footage, I then export the final edit as a 1080P prores 422HQ, Import into resolve using scene cut detection, do my grade and export out a 1080P prores HQ file which I import into premiere pro and then add text and audio and then render out my final 1080P prores 422HQ file. I always did XMLs in the past but due to different frame rates the the clips won't be at the correct position in resolve so I switched to this workflow to avoid this issue.

My question is do I lose quality doing it this way with all the re-encoding? Should I export a 4K prores file from premiere going into resolve instead of 1080? Is there a way of doing xml where mixed framerates play nice? Is it wise to do stabilising, zooming, cropping before grade or should I do it after instead?

Didn't find the answers I was looking for on the internet so thought I would ask here.

Best,

Bjorn

[Geoff CB]

Yes, you lose quality on every single conversion. Try and troubleshoot the XML round-trip.

If you can, exporting to 4K before you go into resolve would help.

I would try and learn how to stabilize, crop, and zoom in Resolve's powerful tools, doing it at the exact same time as your grade.

[EthanAlexander]

7 hours ago, BjornT said:

My question is do I lose quality doing it this way with all the re-encoding?

6 hours ago, Geoff CB said:

Yes, you lose quality on every single conversion.

 

Actually, you really don't lose any quality when exporting ProRes HQ. It's one reason it's such a great option. You could re-encode many, many times without losing visual fidelity.

Source: https://images.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Apple_ProRes_White_Paper.pdf

Having said that, there are definitely other ways to round trip so you don't have to keep rendering. Have you tried exporting from premiere as final cut xml and then importing it into resolve?

[Don Kotlos]

You do loose some information on the second transcode but not much after that:

If you have a problem with xml files and you cannot do what @EthanAlexander suggested, then reduce transcoding by at least one step by working with proxy files in premiere and exporting from the original H264. That will give you one less transcoding step. 

[BjornT]

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

I do use xmls if my frame rate is the same but with mixed frame rates you dont get the correct in and out points of the clips in resolve when using xml from premiere pro. Searched online and didn't seem to be any answers except importing timeline as one file.

Glad to hear that when re-encoding prores that quality loss is rare and if so negligible so can probably stick with my workflow.

Cheers

Bjorn

[Shirozina]

1 hour ago, BjornT said:

Glad to hear that when re-encoding prores that quality loss is rare and if so negligible so can probably stick with my workflow.

 

That's not been my experience and with proxy workflows now available in most good NLE's why take the risk ?

[Don Kotlos]

4 hours ago, Shirozina said:

That's not been my experience and with proxy workflows now available in most good NLE's why take the risk ?

Yeah thats true especially if you are using windows in which you cannot use apple's algorithm. I would minimize transcoding steps as much as possible and if you are using windows change to different intermediate codec:

 

[BjornT]

I am on a mac in this case but even if I use proxies editing won't I have the same issues when going to resolve with mixed framerates? Every 60fps clip I have I conform to 25fps within premiere pro thus the clip gets longer and when sending to resolve it cant find the right in and out points of the clip. I have found no way round that with xml,edl or proxies so far.

[gt3rs]

Why you don't do all the editing in Resolve, it got much better over the years....

The studio version with the HW accelerated h264 decoding at least on Windows with Nvidia cards is quite fast so no need to transcode on a good PC, not sure on a Mac....

[Shirozina]

4 minutes ago, gt3rs said:

Why you don't do all the editing in Resolve, it got much better over the years....

The studio version with the HW accelerated h264 decoding at least on Windows with Nvidia cards is quite fast so no need to transcode on a good PC, not sure on a Mac....

Agree - once it was desirable to use the best features of each ( PP for editing and Audio - Resolve for grading) but recent editions of both apps have brought them much closer together in terms of capability. I'd still argue that Resolve is  better for grading but it's no longer significantly inferior in other areas and PP is not too bad for grading (I just find the interface messy). You do need the studio version to work with 4k 10bit GH5 files but the price is not unreasonable and if you are doing a lot of work I'd say well worth it for not dealing with  transcoding and roundtriping which are 'workarounds' and not 'workflows'.

[BjornT]

Used to Premiere Pro and also have to use when editing for certain companies but will definitely do a project from start to finish in resolve at some point.